Harald Welte, a well-known Linux kernel developer, recipient of an award for significant contributions to the development of free software, founder of gpl-violations.org, creator of the Openmoko project, and one of the developers of netfilter/iptables, shared his opinion regarding the removal of contributors from the Linux kernel maintainers' list based on their alleged work in sanctioned companies. According to Harald, he was proud of his involvement in the kernel developer community, but the current community does not resemble the one he remembers, and it pains him to see what is happening now. He believes there is nothing worse than discriminating against people solely based on their passport, place of residence, or workplace.
As a resident of Germany, he compares this kind of discrimination to the family responsibility law that was in effect during the dark times of his country, which allowed a person to be held accountable for crimes committed by a family member. Of course, exclusion from the kernel development process does not compare to imprisonment, but the principle is similar — punishment follows not for specific actions, but merely for association with someone who has committed reprehensible acts.
Besides the discrimination of developers based on their name, email, or employer, it was surprising that the removal occurred without any explanations. Subsequent clarifications indicated that it was due to sanctions, and the removal was made based on consultations with lawyers, but no full legal analysis was provided, and the parties involved in the necessity to impose sanctions were not indicated (Linux Foundation? developers from the USA? creators of distributions?).
Welte believed that in kernel development, the collaboration of individual developers matters, regardless of who their employers are, and contributions to development should be assessed based on merits, not on the participant's personality or their work for a specific company. The removal from the maintainer list, in Welte's opinion, could be understood if specific developers had been added to the sanctions list, but in the case under consideration, people were removed who could merely be presumed to be associated with sanctioned companies.
Még ha meggyőző jogi érveket is hoznának fel, a tényleges kizárás előtt helyénvaló lenne nyilvános vitát folytatni, megpróbálni megtalálni a módját a jogi követelmények megkerülésének és megszervezni egy közösségi mozgalmat ellene. Végső esetben, ha nem találnának kiskapukat, Völte véleménye szerint polgári engedetlenség várható, vagy a MAINTAINERS fájlban lenne indoklás arról, hogy az eltávolítás kényszerű intézkedés volt. Ezzel szemben a legfontosabb fejlesztők fölösleges hirdetés nélkül, a karakteres meghajtók javítási készletei keretében egy homályos fogalmazású javítást alkalmaztak, ezzel pedig tiszteletlenséget tanúsítottak a távollevő résztvevők munkájával szemben, és megmutatták más fejlesztőknek, hogy a közösségben hogyan viszonyulnak egymáshoz az emberek.
Forrás: opennet.ru
